What Every Parent Needs to Know About Video Games

The Next Generation

The thing about video games that makes them so special is that we’re given
free rein to explore worlds, to interact with magnificent creatures of fantasy,
to travel through spaces that could only live in the imagination. BRADY
FIECHTERexecutive editor, Play

Hollywood, radio, and even MTV are all being pushed aside. Into their slot
are moving video games, perhaps the most influential pop-culture force in recent
memory. At your fingertips—literally—there now reside a host of other worlds,
different dimensions of time, and alternate realities to explore. And their
number continues to increase at a staggeringly rapid rate. Steve Schnur, worldwide
music executive for EA Games, has suggested that video games “are what MTV used
to be: being hip, being current, ushering in trends, and single-handedly created
‘cool.’ ”1

You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby

Video games can no longer be thought of as little more than meaningless distractions
designed to fill the playtime of children. According to Benjamin Porcari—founder
and president of IBC Digital (the company in charge of creating content for
MTV2’s Video Mods program)— “More sophisticated games and exciting content have
pushed games out into the mainstream of entertainment.”2

Porcari is not exaggerating. According to the most recent sales fi gures,
the “overall worth of the video game industry worldwide is projected to grow
from $25 billion in 2004 to $55 billion in 2009.” Some observers have suggested,
with good reason, that “games currently represent, fi nancially, the highest-growth
area in the entertainment business.” This holds especially true of adult male
consumers who “prefer paying for video games over any form of music….Games are
now second only to DVDs for men as a purchase category.”3

Signs of the growing prosperity and infl uence of the video-game industry
are everywhere. For example, expos and competitions are now common (see sidebar)—as
are video-game sporting events. Yes, I said sporting events. Playing video games
has become so competitive that it has achieved legitimate sport status on an
international level (complete with large monetary prizes). These “e-sports”
might easily turn into Olympic events in the nottoo- distant future…with USA
Rebels battling Korean Imperial Guards for the gold, but doing so on a distant
fantasy world.

Video games have even crossed over into television, as evidenced by the MTV2
program Video Mods, which uses characters from popular video games to “create
brand new music videos for today’s hits” by well-known bands, such as Evanescence.
6 (One such pairing resulted in a new music video version of Franz Ferdinand’s
“Take Me Out” that featured Jedi masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda—from the Star
Wars: Episode III game—playing guitar and drums, respectively, and Anakin Skywalker
singing lead vocals.)

Conventions, Expos, Competitions

The MTV2/Nesquick–sponsored Game Riot conference in 2005 included a video-game
party, competition between amateurs, and for those brave enough, an opportunity
to match skills with professional video-game player Matt Leto (a.k.a. Zyos),
the undisputed reigning Halo champ.4 Consider, too, the annual GenCon in Indianapolis,
which attracts some 50,000 international gaming enthusiasts, who show up at
the city’s convention center to celebrate “just about every type of gaming and
game-related activity you can imagine.”5

And then there is the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)—the big kahuna
of all such gatherings. (Finally, I must mention the October 2005 IGN Live convention
and also BlizzCon—a conference dedicated to the wildly popular online game World
of Warcraft. I had a spectacular time at both of these events.)

And That’s Not All

Like the 1980s Toyota commercials exclaimed, “Who could ask for anything
more?” Well, the surprising answer is, a lot of people. The year 2005, for instance,
saw the emergence of a concert tour that presented music from video games as
performed by “top orchestras and choirs combined with video footage, lasers,
lights, and live action to create an explosive and unique entertainment xperience.”
This concert treated video game fans to the lush musical scores from top-selling
video games such as Halo, Final Fantasy, Advent Rising, and Castlevania. Another
concert tour featured music taken exclusively from Final Fantasy, performed
by “prestigious local orchestras and choirs.”7

Given the innovation and creativity that now surround video games, it is
no surprise that 2005 also saw “the world’s fi rst cable channel devoted entirely
to video games” being launched. Not to be outdone, the Turner Broadcasting System
has created GameTap (www.gametap.com)—a broadband entertainment network featuring
“a wealth of classic and current console, arcade, and PC” video-game titles
for $14.95 a month.8 This network has been set up for subscribers interested
in accessing hundreds, eventually thousands, of family-friendly games (as opposed
to “Mature”-rated games).

Countless bands and musicians are jumping on the video-game bandwagon as
well. In the very near future there will undoubtedly be CD album soundtracks
to video games just like there are now CD album soundtracks to fi lms and theatrical
productions. Tim Riley, music supervisor at Activision, notes that for up-andcoming
artists, “getting a spot on a soundtrack can be as powerful as being added to
a radio station’s playlist.”9

But here’s the real pop-culture kicker—there are now even a number of Christian
video games being created, such as Armageddon (a “shooter” game—see page 30)
and Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a “real-time strategy game based on the bestselling
books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.” According to Garland Wong, president
of the company working on Armageddon, “There’s a huge potential for Christian
content” in video games—even mature/violent games that include war, bloodshed,
and frightening images. As Wong says, “We’re trying to approach it from a realistic
perspective.”10

Troy Lyndon of Left Behind Games agrees that a realistic, contemporary, and
provocative approach is the way to go: The only way Christian gaming will appeal
to the mass market will be if we make quality games and create games with stimulating
points that allow the gamers to think for themselves without insulting their
intelligence or attempting to outright convert them.11

Clearly, video games have become big business. So big, in fact, that several
corporations are now using in-game product placement to sell their wares. In
2003 this tactic (“advergaming”) garnered $79 million in revenue. By 2008 “these
practices may generate $206 million or more.”12 But the success has not come
without controversy.

The Fly in the Warp Drive

Image-based video games (as opposed to text-based games) were controversial
almost as soon as they hit the entertainment scene in the 1980s. What were these
“games”? Why were kids so attracted to them? How might they benefi t—or harm—children?
Some forward-thinking observers of pop culture expressed excitement, while others
were less than kind. The renowned child behaviorist Dr. Benjamin Spock, for
instance, snubbed video games by labeling them as nothing but a “colossal waste
of time.”13

But Dr. Spock’s swipe at video games is nothing compared to what is happening
today. The Chinese government, for example, has adopted tough video-game restrictions
in recent years. At one point, it even attempted to control how much time Chinese
citizens devoted to playing. This has all been in an effort to, as they indicate,
“create a healthier environment for children, lumping games in with the more
obvious vices of gambling and porn.”14

In the United States, too, some laws have been enacted to control the distribution
of video games to minors. The reasoning in China bears a striking similarity
to the reasoning in America. Consider the words of California Assemblyman Leland
Yee (a Democrat from San Francisco), whose efforts to control videogame distribution
led to the passage of a new law in his state that prohibits the sale of certain
games to minors (see chapter 2):

As a child psychologist, I understand the harmful effects these games
have on our children....Study after study of the most respected medical
organizations has shown that these ultra-violent video games have negative
effects on our kids....[It has been shown that] children who play these
ultra-violent video games are more likely to view violence as an effective
way of settling conflicts; that these games can lead to emotional desensitization
toward violence in real life; and that such children have a higher tendency
for violent and aggressive behavior later in life.15

Yee’s arguments sound convincing, especially in light of some horrific crimes
that investigators have loosely linked to videogame playing. For example, the
Columbine High School killers (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold) enjoyed playing
Doom, a “first-person shooter” game. And in Alabama a 20-year-old man
“obsessed with the Grand Theft Auto game” (a game infamous for its violence)
shot and killed two policemen and a police dispatcher.16 But did Grand Theft
Auto really desensitize this man to murder and prompt his attacks? Did Doom
actually train Harris and Klebold to kill fellow students?

Anti-video-game protestors, legislators, and parents would answer with a
strong yes to both questions. Gamers, on the other hand, would say, “Certainly
not!” Both camps, of course, are adamant. So adamant, in fact, that a kind of
mini culture war has erupted, with nongamers pitted against gamers—and the sides
are divided strikingly along generational lines, which is signifi cant.

Although a full 50 percent of Americans play video games, most of today’s
gamers (around 75 percent) are under 40 years old. In other words, they are
the generation raised on games. This translates into a new kind of generation
gap between older nongamers and young-adult gamers (as well as teens and children).
Confl ict and controversy has resulted.

But things are changing, especially as young gamers grow older and begin
to slowly take the reins of social and cultural power and gain more infl uence
in the media. So far, though, it has not been an easy transition. John Davison,
editorial director for Ziff Davis’s Game Group, has rightly observed, “Like
comic books and hip-hop music before them, video games are currently fueling
a firestorm of media controversy.”17

And Davison is not alone in taking this view. His insightful article “Pop
Culture Pariah” cites Patricia Vance—president of the Entertainment Software
Ratings Board (ESRB)— as another industry personality who “believes the mainstream
media is cherry-picking facts about gaming to show the industry in a bad light.
‘Few games are M-rated [for Mature content],’ she points out, ‘but that’s the
type of game the mainstream media always shows when they want to drive home
any point about video games.’ ”18

A Personal Take

For me, a week begins in a faraway galaxy where I am a member of the Gallente
Federation. I pilot a variety of spaceships including a swift little frigate,
a cargo hauler, a menacing destroyer known as a Thrasher, several high-level
cruisers, and a battleship. My primary vessel takes me on a variety of missions
during which I am invariably forced to combat smugglers, spies from rival federations
(or factions), and all sorts of other nasties that inhabit the solar system
that I call home (Angel Cartel space pirates, for example, immediately come
to mind).

By Thursday or Friday, however, I am usually back on Earth as a medic, either
in the midst of a World War II campaign or in the thick of a modern military
confl ict (usually around the Middle East). While in these situations I am a
dedicated soldier whose heart and mind are intently focused on saving as many
lives as possible in spite of sniper attacks, airstrikes, and barrages of heavy
artillery.

Then comes the weekend, which invariably finds me stuck in a place known
only as “City #17.” I am a man confused, dazed, worried…and running for his
life. I have no idea exactly how I got to City #17, nor do I understand very
much about what is happening around me. But what I do know is that very little
of it is good. My adventure leads me day after day on a path of discovery. What
happened to me? Why am I here?

Where am I supposed to go next? How am I to survive another 24 hours? Through
it all I am a man being hunted for some as yet undiscovered reason.

There are many more options available to me than these few characters I have
briefl y described. I’m not the best videogame player—not by any means. I fall
somewhere in the middle of the pack with millions of other gamers who, like
me, just love to play. We are part of a growing segment of society and culture
that sees video games as a hobby, a sport, a route to relaxation, and even a
livelihood (for example, gaming journalists and game story writers).

As one gamer eloquently expressed it, video games “are a great escape from
a bland reality, a way to stimulate your mind and relax your soul in colorful,
distant worlds that the talented minds of the creators have conceived.”19

Here Comes the Future

There is no doubt that the infl uence and appeal of the electronic gaming
industry will only grow as video and computer games are seen more and more as
important forms of art and entertainment. The sheer money factor is enough to
ensure the future of electronic games. But there are now other important aspects
to video games.

For example, a new entertainment genre called machinima (from the words “machine
cinema” or “machine animation”) has emerged. It consists of taking recorded
video footage from a game and adding original dialogue to the player-controlled
movements of the characters. The new art form has became so popular so quickly
that infl uential game industry movers and shakers have not only formed the
Academy of Machinima Art and Science, but also have launched a yearly machinima
fi lm festival (in New York).

A new kind of photography/art is now emerging as well— screen shots* of in-game
scenes (for example, landscapes, battles, character interaction) that a player
can actually orchestrate via playing: “There is light and shadow, lines, curves,
patterns, balance, close-ups, architecture, nature and many other elements of
photography….Players can actually have a chance to ‘compose’ photos and even
capture moments of emotion, decay, ruin, humanity, etc.”20

As for actual game play, we will soon be able to play with onscreen characters
that have very “realistic emotions.” One nearfuture reality, for instance, might
be a Finding Nemo video game that could “look just like the movie.”21 This means
hyperrealistic scenery; movie-quality action; and characters that will not only
look truly alive, but will also behave in ways that mirror the unpredictability
of humans—via highly advanced artifi cial intelligence (AI).

And in a push toward making Star Trek’s “holodeck” a reality, a Finnish company
has produced a life-sized room wherein a player’s fi ght moves are interpreted
by cameras and transferred on screen to their virtual reality characters, through
whom players can battle an assortment of foes using various weapons.22 Sony
has even patented a new technology “that would beam sensory info such as smells,
tastes, and images straight to the brain,” which could forever change the video-game
playing experience.23

All of this is happening as the generation that grew up on video games is
assuming its rightful place in the world. But with the emergence of today’s
young adults, some important questions about video games are beginning to surface.
What makes a “good” video game? Does there exist any way of determining if the
degree of aggression in a game is too much aggression? How should right and
wrong be portrayed in a game? Where is the line between valid artistic expression
through video games and an irresponsible abuse of America’s freedoms of speech?
Do videogame developers and publishers have any social, moral, or cultural responsibilities
at all? Do video games actually affect the children, teens, and adults who play
them? If so, how?

These are just some of the issues I explore in the following pages. My intention
is for this volume to be a small, yet significant, contribution to what promises
to someday be a vast collection of video-game-related literature. Clearly, the
era of video games has arrived—and all of us are already a part of it.